Hey im on holiday at the moment in a different country. And well my guitarist in my band has a budget Stratocaster. (But its reali good. Nicely Worn in). And well i was thinking that i wuld buy something over here to give it a little upgrade. But im reali low on the money at the moment since i have bought a few christmas presents for people. Anyone have any ideas for cheap, good upgrades??? and tel me what effect the upgrade has.

Also our band plays Blues mostly. He reali loves playing SRV and John Mayer stuff. Also loves Playing those Joe Satriani solos, but keep it Single coils thanks.

My number 1 thought has to be Callaham trem block and stuff. It transformed my deluxe. Before I installed the Callaham set I didn't really think it would make a difference, but afterwards I couldn't believe my ears. Livelier and strattier tone instantly. I dare say it's more important than pickups.

O sweet. Sounds good mate. Thanks. Where can i get this stuff??? Does it cost much???

I guess it depends on what your "budget " guitar is to begin with .Some of the lower end strats might benefit from a Callahan block, but some of the others might not.I would first buy the guitar and see for yourself what it needs.You might be suprised and find no upgrades are neccessary.The more you spend , the less likely you will need to upgrade, so I would weigh the choices.If you are gonna buy a strat for 500 and put another 200-300 in upgrades, you might want to look at buying something in the higher price range that would fill your needs out of the box.I would take a hard look at amplification too.If you are looking for SRV tone , you arent gonna find it with say el84 tubes.Guitar upgrades account for small sonic differences in tone, but amps account for huge differences.JMHO.

Well this is a Probe strat copy. It was bought in new zealand. But my mate makes it sound amazing!!! But i thought i might as well buy him a upgrade since it is even cheaper then a budget squier. Maybe the same price as a brand new lowest budget squier. But it dnt sound very compressed wen using distortion. Sounds a bit flabby. well it sounds very flabby. But that was probably because of the overdrive pedal we were using.

Its very hard to determine where you'd get the most benefit from upgrading, without playing the guitar. Personaly I'd look to keep the thing in tune first, then the comfort/playbility of the guitar. Then look at tweaking the sound. We as guitarists worry far far too much about nuances of sound. When basicaly the electric guitar counts as little more than a toy in the music world.

_________________
No no and no

Well yea. U do hav a point there. I hav played it. The action i actually quite like since its been played for a while and he has worn it in real nice. I guess i shuldnt buy anytin haha

Nah not at all, just play the thing and see what needs to be done to it before throwing money at it.

I for one think getting a copy guitar and upping certain parts is one of the best ways to get the guitar you want. You need to think about it though.

_________________
No no and no

Well something inexpensive and does make for a brighter tone in my opinion is a set of new strings.

Nice stocking stuffer

Well I hate to say this, but a new Fender Standard or a Squier Classic Vibe may be the best option for this. Not to mention I would love it if a friend of mine did that for me.

Don't get me wrong, I am fond of upgrades and I am not a gear snob. But for the price of a new bridge and new pick-ups you could afford a good used Fender Standard or a new Squier CV. I am not sure how much shipping is to NZ, this may not be in the budget as well.

Another suggestion is if it sounds a bit "flabby," depending on the type of amp and music style, a new distortion box may do the trick. What kind does he have now? What's the musical style he plays? What kind of amp is used? These will help as well to determine which route to go as well.

RK

Well the distortion box we were using was a Ibanez tube screamer ts5. Wasn't the greatest. But i have just recently bought a Vox Cooltron over the top boost pedal for the band. Very smooth distortion using a 12AU7 tube. So he will be very impressed since he is not very familiar with tubes. But his musical style is mostly blues but then again he may rip out Eric Johnson - Cliffs of DOver or John Mayer - Gravity. THe amp we use is a Vox Valvetronix 100 watt. NIce on the clean but we rarely use the built in distortion.

Go into a guitar shop and check out a Boss Driver:

http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/prod ... sku=151392

Play or have someone else who plays/can play Blues with one. Use the Vox Valvetronics 100 watt. They should have one in the store. You may also want to consider this as well:

http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/ ... sku=300298

Hope this helps a little.

RK

If "budget" is a concern, then I would consider getting a set of Fender Tex Mex pups. They are very affordable, and will likely completely transform your guitar.

I would do this before any of the other stuff. Personally, I believe that until you have a decent set of pups in your guitar, your tonal strategy often is masking (or drowning out) the guitar's innate tone, instead of emphasizing and embellishing it. Just my opinion ...

_________________
Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

Would your consider budged "upgrades" to include aestetics such as:

- pickguard with interesting art
- control knobs
- tuners ot just tuner buttons
- neck plate with engraved "best buds"
- crazy colored pickup covers
- guitar stickers


Heck I would be happy with a set of stewmac fret and nut files.

Here is the biggest bang for the buck upgrade:

Cost: ~$4.00

Change the value of the cap and re-wire the tone pots to:
Bottom: bridge pup
Middle: middle + neck pup

If you have a few extra bucks, you could get two different value of caps to try which one you like better.

For cheap, I prefer 0.047 Sprague Orange Drop.
For more $$, I prefer 0.047 Jensen PIO cap (~$15).

Either way, I don't think you can find a bigger bang for the dollar.

Have fun.